AXTWKKP TO BRUSSELS. c 27i 



tention by our friends at Ghent; aiul Malincs has long 

 been distinguished for florists who excel in pinks and roses. 

 It was with regret, therefore, that we found ourselves ob- 

 liged to set forward. 



Some of the common crops in this neighbourhood are 

 little known in North Britain; particularly madder and 

 coriander. 



After passing the river Dyle, the country became diver- 

 sified with gentle swellings ; and as we approached Brussels, 

 more considerable heights came in view. The prison- 

 house at Vilvorde attracted our notice, and one of our fel- 

 low-travellers highly extolled the arrangements and disci- 

 pline of this penitentiary. The entrance to Brussels on 

 this side is beautiful. On the right we had the Palace of 

 Lacken, finely situate on an eminence, from which a lawn, 

 ornamented with clumps of shrubs and scattered trees, slopes 

 gradually down to a piece of water on a level with the high 

 road. On the left we had the small river Senne, or rather 

 the Mechlin canal, which, by means of successive levels and 

 locks, communicates with the sea at Antwerp ; and beyond 

 it, some handsome seats of the nobility and richer mer- 

 chants. After having spent a month in a flat alluvial 

 country, where scarce a stone was to be seen, and where 

 there was no trace of any rock in situ, we were glad to per- 

 ceive symptoms of our having entered a district of quarries^ 

 from which we might learn the nature of the mineral stra- 

 ta ; for now the houses and inclosure walls were all built 

 of sandstone and trap-rock. 



Brussels. 



We put up at the hotel called Couronne (TEspagne, 

 kept by Gregoire de Silly, in the Old Corn-market. Af- 



